'I am so excited about my new role at White House': New domestic policy advisor Neera Tanden

Washington, May 11

Indian-American public policy expert Neera Tanden, who would soon succeed Susan Rice as the White House domestic policy advisor, has said that she is “excited” about her new role in the administration.

Tanden, 52, is the first Asian-American to have been named to hold this powerful position in the White House. She is currently the senior advisor and staff secretary to President Joe Biden.

“I am so excited for my new role at the White House, and I am thrilled to be part of an administration that has so many AANHPI (Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders) leaders, so many AANHPI women leaders, … so many leaders who represent the great diversity of our community,” Tanden said in her address to the AANHPI Women’s Celebration organised by the AAPI Victory Fund on Wednesday.

Addressing a packed Kennedy Centre auditorium, composed of eminent AANHPI leaders, including Indian Americans, Tanden, a Democrat, said when she worked at the White House during the Clinton Administration there were only a handful of AANHPI people.

Twenty-five years later under the Biden Administration, there is hardly any branch of the government where there are no AANHPI at eminent positions, she said.

“We have leaders in every agency. And I am incredibly proud that we have three AANHPI leaders leading policy councils in the White House. And that is a historic accomplishment for our community,” Tanden said.

Tanden has served in both the Obama and Clinton administrations, as well as presidential campaigns and think-tanks. Most recently, she was the president and CEO of the Centre for American Progress and the Centre for American Progress Action Fund.